The Lotus Eletre S EV is one of the most accomplished electric SUVs money can buy, with range, killer looks, a luxury interior and loads of high-tech additions. But the China-made car is a big departure from the UK-built Lotus cars I grew up idolizing. So can I love this new version of Lotus just the same? I took it on a mammoth 4,000-mile road trip around Europe to find out.
I drove the Lotus Eletre S from my home in Edinburgh, down the UK, across France, and into Barcelona, before coming back home via a more rural route through Spain and France. This immense odyssey saw me tackle endless highway miles, snowbound mountain roads, busy city centers and nightmarishly narrow village alleyways. Across the 4,000 miles of my trip, I learned a lot about the Eletre, from how to balance performance with range, how to understand the car's quirks and ultimately, whether the hyper-modern Eletre matches up with my dreams of driving Lotus cars of bygone years.
The Eletre was a joy to drive through Spain. As a child in the '90s, I adored Lotus sports cars. I remember my neighbor had a '90s yellow Esprit that I was obsessed with.
I say "neighbor" -- they actually lived several streets away from me, but I was so besotted with this car that I would quite often walk around just so I could stare at it. But the times have changed, and Lotus has moved on from its exceptionally small and lightweight sports cars: the Elise, the Esprit, the Elan. They all weighed about as much as an iPhone and were a.